It's a Thursday, which means some MLB teams have the day off. Still, there's plenty of action to be found on diamonds across America.

Some of the storylines worth watching include the Giants and Cubs concluding their wild series, the Orioles potentially making history, and the Astros trying to atone for last night's loss against the lowly Tigers.

Keep it here for all the latest news, notes, and scores from across the league.

Select games can be streamed regionally via fuboTV (Try for free). For more on what channel each game is on, click here.

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Baseball scores for Thursday, August 22

Cubs win, continue roll

The Cubs and Giants had the unenviable task of following up one of the most exciting, back-and-forth contests in baseball this season with an afternoon game on Thursday. The offenses left their best work behind them, as the two sides combined for one run on six hits as part of a Cubs win.

Kyle Hendricks bested Jeff Samardzija, but both delivered seven innings of strong work. Hendricks fanned seven and walked none while giving up three hits. Samardzija gave up a run on two hits and a walk while punching out four. The run scored in part because of some questionable defense on the Giants' part. Jason Heyward reached on a ball that Kevin Pillar lost in the sun, and later advanced on a fielding error by Brandon Crawford. Eventually, Anthony Rizzo plated him with a two-out single.

The Cubs have now won five games in a row and have a half-game lead in the National League Central over the Cardinals.

The Giants, conversely, have dropped four consecutive games and are six games back in the wild card race.

Braves' Acuna walks off Miami to complete sweep

The Braves won their fifth straight game in a come from behind, walk-off win against the Marlins. With the win, they completed a three-game sweep over Miami.

The late comeback got kicked off with Freddie Freeman's solo home run off Ryne Stanek in the eighth inning to tie the game. The blast was Freeman's 34th on the season, a career best for the All-Star first baseman. Freeman's 34 home runs on the season ranks fifth-best in the National League and second-best on the Braves, behind Ronald Acuna Jr.

Speaking of which... Acuna delivered the two-out, walk-off single off Stanek.

The first-place Braves have gone 15-4 against the Marlins this year. And with the Freeman homer, Miami has allowed a home run in 23 straight games, the fourth-longest streak in MLB history. On Friday, Miami will open a three-game home series against the Phillies while the Braves will travel to Queens for a three-game series against the red-hot Mets.

Scherzer returns to mound after IL stint

After nearly a month on the injured list with back and shoulder injuries, Nationals ace Max Scherzer made his return against the Pirates on Thursday. The three-time Cy Young Award winner looked solid, but more importantly, he's healthy just in time for the Washington's playoff push. Thursday was a building block as the Nats will likely ramp up the right-hander's workload safe and slowly rather than rushed. Here's Scherzer's final line from the night: 

player headshot
Max Scherzer
TEX • SP • #31
IP4.0
H4
ER1
K3
BB1
P71
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If Scherzer manages to stay on track, he'll likely make his next start against the struggling Orioles. The Nationals (70-57) currently own the first NL wild card spot.

Orioles set MLB record for most homers allowed

After tying the single-season record for the most home runs allowed on Wednesday, the Orioles gave up two home runs against the Rays during Thursday's game in Baltimore to become owners of the record, with 260 home runs allowed. We have more on that here.

Syndergaard shines, Mets sweep Indians

Noah Syndergaard carried a perfect game into the sixth inning and struck out five over six scoreless innings against the Indians. 50 of his 73 pitches were called strikes. His start was cut short because of a rain delay. And, eventually the game was called with the Mets notching a 2-0 win after a second rain delay. Here's Thor's final line:

player headshot
Noah Syndergaard
CLE • SP • #34
IP6.0
H2
ER0
BB0
K5
P73
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The Mets completed the sweep of the Indians for the fifth straight victory. New York has had one of the hottest second-halves, and are 27-10 since the All-Star break. They're a game and a half back behind the Cardinals for the final NL wild card spot. The Indians, meanwhile, have dropped seven of their past nine games and fell three and a half games behind the Twins in the AL Central. Cleveland's a half-game behind the Rays for the final AL wild card spot.

Stat of the day: Torres notches another multi-homer game

While the Yankees may have gotten swept by Athletics on Thursday, second baseman Gleyber Torres was a bright spot in the loss. Torres, 22, hit two solo home runs for his eighth multi-home run game on the season. The two home runs bring his season total to 31; he leads the Yankees for most home runs this season. With that, he joins some exclusive company:

Entering the fifth inning, the Yankees were down 5-0, and if the shut out had held, they would've broken their streak of 211 consecutive games without being shut out. Thanks to left fielder Mike Tauchman's RBI single in the fifth (in which Torres scored) and Torres' two homers, the Yankees kept that streak alive. The MLB record belongs to the 1931-33 Yankees, who went 308 games without getting shut out. The current Yankees team is one game away from tying the second-longest streak in MLB modern history which belongs to 1978-79 Brewers.

Red Sox walk off on Royals in 12 minutes

The Red Sox and Royals concluded their suspended game from Aug. 7 on Thursday afternoon. It didn't take long for the Red Sox to walk off victorious, either. In fact, from start to finish, the entire thing took about 12 minutes. 

Red Sox reliever Josh Taylor sat down the side in order during the top half of the 10th. The Red Sox lineup then wasted little time jumping on Richard Lovelady, who struck out Andrew Benintendi before yielding a double to Christian Vazquez. The Royals would intentionally walk Sam Travis, but it wouldn't matter. A Brock Holt liner to left ended things all the same:  

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